he
decapitated in his wars, was created Earl of Clanrickarde and Baron of
Dunkellin. These titles were conferred by the King, with great pomp, at
Greenwich; but the Irish chieftains paid for the honour, if honour it
could be called where honour was forfeited, by acknowledging the royal
supremacy.

The Four Masters record the following events under the year 1545:--A
dispute between the Earl of Ormonde and the Lord Justice. Both repaired
to the King of England to decide the quarrel, and both swore that only
one of them should return to Ireland. "And so it fell out; for the Earl
died in England, and the Lord Justice returned to Ireland." Sir Richard
Cox asserts that the Earl and thirty-five of his servants were poisoned,
at a feast at Ely House, Holborn, and that he and sixteen of them died;
but he does not mention any cause for this tragedy. It was probably
accidental, as the Earl was a favourer of the reformed religion, and not
likely to meet with treachery in England. The Irish annalists do not
even allude to the catastrophe; the Four Masters merely observe, that
"he would have been lamented, were it not that he had greatly injured
the Church by advice of the heretics."[402]

Great dearth prevailed this year, so that sixpence of the old money was
given for a cake of bread in Connaught, or six white pence in Meath.

In 1546 they mention a rising of the Geraldines, "which did
indescribable damages;" and two invasions of the Lord Justice in Offaly,
who plundered and spoiled, burning churches and monasteries, crops and
corn. They also mention the introduction of a new copper coin into
Ireland, which the men of Ireland were obliged to use as silver.

The immense sums which Henry had accumulated by the plunder of religious
houses, appear to have melted away, like snow-wreaths sunshine, long
before the conclusion of his reign. His French and Scotch wars
undoubtedly exhausted large supplies; his mistresses made large demands
for their pleasures and their needy friends; yet there should have been
enough, and to spare, for all these claims. When the monasteries were
destroyed, the English clergy trembled for their own existence. The King
could easily have dispensed with their services, and deprived them of
their revenues. They were quite aware of their precarious tenure of
office, and willingly agreed, in 1543, to give Henry ten per cent, on
their incomes for three years, after the deduction of the tenths already
vested in t